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Scams bloom as Super Bowl nears

NEW ORLEANS - The Super Bowl means big money for the NFL, the cities where the teams play, the host city and, apparently, scammers.

The week leading up to Super Bowl XLVII has been marked by a number of high-profile (and high-dollar-value) frauds and scams that prey upon football fans and their hard-earned money.

Police said Thursday they are hot on the trail of the Baltimore Ravens fan who bilked a family of San Francisco 49ers faithful out of $5,900 for Super Bowl tickets.

Sharon Osgood, 49, and her family - all 49ers season-ticket holders - wired $5,900 to a man they met on Craigslist who said he was a Ravens season-ticket holder who couldn't use his four Super Bowl tickets because his wife was 8 months pregnant.

On Monday, the couple received a FedEx package void of tickets but with the taunt "Go Ravens! LOL!" typed on the outside and inside of the envelope.

Investigators have confiscated more than $13.6 million worth of phony sports merchandise over the past five months and expect to seize even more in New Orleans this week, a federal law-enforcement official said Thursday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton said authorities also have shut down more than 300 websites selling counterfeit goods as part of an enforcement effort dubbed "Operation Red Zone."

And federal investigators say they have intelligence that shows even the Mexican drug cartels are getting involved in the counterfeit NFL black market trade because they can make quick money by selling fake jerseys in flea markets and parking lots.

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More than 160,000 counterfeit items, mostly purporting to be official Super Bowl and other NFL merchandise, were seized during "Operation Red Zone." A total of 23 people have been arrested on related charges since September 2012.

Morton said agents also were in the city this week to crack down on the sale of counterfeit merchandise before Sunday's Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens.

"This just takes good old-fashioned police work, people getting out on the streets," he said.

This is the fifth consecutive year that federal authorities have launched a similar operation to crack down on the sale of counterfeit sports goods. Roughly $5.1 million in goods were seized during the previous one, Morton said.

Morton said copycat websites selling bogus merchandise have become increasingly sophisticated in their efforts to dupe customers into believing they're purchasing licensed, official sportswear.

"The prices are not ridiculously low. They're just discounted enough to fool the consumer," he added.

Andy Hageman, owner of House of Football, an Albuquerque store that sells authentic, licensed NFL products, said every week he gets customers who find out that they had purchased fake jerseys online or at other stores.

"They ask me to see if the shirt is a fake, and I usually can tell right away," said Hageman.

The quality counterfeit jerseys also vary, federal officials say. Authentic jerseys can usually be identified by the required NFL hologram logo and the high quality stitching, officials said.

"Sometimes, you can't even tell they are fakes," said Abar. "Other time, the jerseys have 'Patriots' misspelled."

Anastasia Danias, the NFL's vice president for legal affairs, said fans also need to be wary of buying counterfeit Super Bowl tickets from "any suspicious sources."

"We learn of hundreds of fans every year who travel to the host city with the hope of watching their team play in the Super Bowl game only to be turned away at the gate, having bought counterfeit tickets or tickets that were reported lost or stolen," she said.

The Osgoods' story has a happy ending, though.

On Tuesday, both Ticketmaster and the 49ers offered the family free tickets to Sunday's big game in New Orleans and a lunch with NFL legend Troy Aikman - along with a follow-up offer from StubHub on Wednesday.

The family arrived in New Orleans on Thursday after a 36-hour, nonstop ride in their RV. They are set to receive four tickets from Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard on Friday and another free ticket for a fifth family member is coming courtesy of the 49ers.

Police are still trying to track the scammer.

"They're working several good leads, some solid leads," said Sgt. J.D. Nelson of the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, adding they are working closely with authorities in Florida, where the alleged scammer lives.

- Mike Rosenberg of the San Jose Mercury News contributed to this report.